This is my personal blog which I began in February 2001. I called it The Obvious? when I wrote anonymously and chose the name to reflect the fact I have to overcome my inhibitions about stating the obvious!

Better never means better for everyone, he says. It always means worse for some.

Margaret Attwood The Handmaid's Tale

Some people claim that social media is going to change the world, others that it is a temporary fad. Likewise blogging. Pundits announce that it is this, that, or the next thing - and then that it is dead. But these aren't things that can be raised up or knocked down, they are not things. They are just us collectively and individually playing with a new way of thinking, communicating, and occasionally getting things done.

At the very least what is happening is interesting. Being interested in it is a good thing. Expecting it to make things better is something we all do, and that in itself is interesting.

How do you get something to happen without making something happen. How do you bring about change by attraction and willing engagement of energy, by enthusiasm rather than by coercion?

How do you get something to happen as it isn't a thing? How do you move forwards without an ideology or something concrete to move towards? Is moving away from things enough? Is being able to describe what's wrong and how to avoid it sufficient or do you have to describe what is right?

I reckon what I get paid for is to enthuse people. Not about any particular direction to move in, nor even about any particular philosophy to adopt. What I enthuse them about is an enhanced ability to work out what they think and then communicate what they think to, and with, others. I don't care about business, and I don't care about business effectiveness. I care about people and their ability to be the best they can be both individually and collectively. If this makes businesses better and more effective then so be it.